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A Life and Love of Languages

People have asked me why I recently joined the U.S. Department of Education as assistant deputy secretary in the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) and what I hope to accomplish. It’s personal. The mission of OELA is very important to me as someone whose family did not fully understand U.S. education and someone who could have easily been a statistic.

The stories of many English learners, immigrants, and first-generation college students resonate with me. I grew up in a low-income household, the eldest child of a Mexican immigrant mother and a first-generation American father born into a Bracero family in California.1 My mother was not familiar with education in the U.S. and did not speak English. Back then, she did not have the tools to engage effectively with teachers and did not play an active role in the education of her children. My father was a waiter and worked long hours, including all major holidays. I remember winning a spelling bee when I was a student at Magnolia Elementary School in Los Angeles. I was cheered on by my teachers, my fellow classmates, and their parents, but my parents were not there. Yet the loud support of the crowd convinced me that learning and academic achievement were and are valued.

We moved to El Paso when I was 16. I wanted to work for the government and needed a plan to go to college. Even though I earned good grades, joined the Academic Decathlon, and won second place in the Modern Languages Speech Tournament in the category of extemporaneous speaking in French, I knew my parents could not afford college tuition. So, I decided to become a certified nursing assistant.

My plan to work as a certified nursing assistant while attending the University of Texas at El Paso did not materialize. I discovered languages were an even better source of income. I had achieved high proficiency in English, Spanish, French, and Italian and worked for a language school as a translator, interpreter, language proficiency rater, and instructor. Multilingual skills were a fun and important source of income for me as a young adult and they’ve sustained me throughout my life. I am honored to now use these skills to benefit the American people.

As assistant deputy secretary, I hope to:

  1. help increase family engagement to ensure that English learners receive the freedom they need to successfully complete high school and post-secondary education, including four-year degrees and technical training. We will do this by finalizing our Family Toolkit to help parents understand and navigate education in the U.S.;
  2. help expand access to distance learning, especially in areas where broadband may be limited such as in tribal communities. We will do this by partnering with teachers and families to understand technology limitations impacting English learners and adjusting our approach to ensure deficiencies are being identified, addressed, and mitigated; and
  3. enhance retention of heritage languages. We will do this by promoting new and different educational opportunities to students who speak two or more languages, including four-year degrees, translation certificates, and other technical career options. We will develop a Career Preparedness Toolkit to raise awareness of various career paths and how to begin pursuing them.

Stepping into this new role during the COVID-19 pandemic has provided me the opportunity to witness firsthand how OELA accomplishes its mission in a virtual environment and to reflect on how education can and must adapt to serve English learners in changing circumstances. I am impressed with the resilience of OELA staff to empower those closest to students during this crisis. I am equally impressed with education leaders who continue to innovate for their students. Together, we have important work ahead.

References

To make up for labor shortages caused by World War II, the Bracero Program was created to permit millions of Mexican men to come to the U.S. to work on short-term, primarily agricultural labor contracts. From 1942 to 1964, 4.6 million contracts were signed, making it the largest U.S. contract labor program. See http://braceroarchive.org/about.

Lorena Orozco McElwain ([email protected]) is assistant deputy secretary and director of the Office of English Language Acquisition at the U.S. Department of Education.

UO Offering No-Cost DIBELS Resources

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at the University of Oregon is offering free access to its DIBELS training courses during COVID-related school closures. DIBELS, a tool for assessing the efficacy of literacy instruction and programs, can be used for universal screening, benchmark assessment, and progress monitoring in grades K-8. In addition to free training courses, the CTL is offering an administration supplement with recommendations for beginning of year benchmark testing as well as tips for interpreting benchmark data. For more information regarding these and other resources available through the CTL, please visit https://dibels.uoregon.edu/.

New America to Host Learning Sciences Exchange Summit Virtually due to Covid

For the past two years, the Learning Sciences Exchange (LSX) fellows program has brought together experts in Europe and North America across four sectors—early learning research, policy, journalism, and entertainment—to share crucial insights from their fields and to collaboratively devise new methods for spreading the word about how to help young children develop and learn at their full potential. These fellows, working in teams for two years, have designed three scaleable projects that take creative, outside-the-box approaches to translating childhood development research for parents, educators, practitioners, and the broader public. Watch them showcase their ground-breaking work, ask them questions about their projects, and join New America, the International Congress on Infant Studies, and the Jacobs Foundation in an interactive discussion on why it is critical to elevate and improve early learning and science communication.

RSVP to the summit here.

New Report Suggests Schools Reopen In Person For Elementary Students

A new report by the National Academics of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine suggests that public school districts should prioritize full-time, in-person classes for grades K-5 and for students with special needs.

Opening schools will benefit families beyond providing education, including by supplying child care, school services, meals, and other family supports. Without in-person instruction, schools risk children falling behind academically and exacerbating educational inequities.

Reopening K-12 Schools During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Prioritizing Health, Equity, and Communities recommends federal and state governments provide significant resources to districts and schools to help them cover the cost of COVID-19 precautions, including masks, enhanced cleaning, facility upgrades, and reconfigured classes.

While it will be impossible for schools to entirely eliminate the risk of COVID-19, the report says, young children in particular will be impacted by not having in-person learning and may suffer long-term academic consequences if they fall behind as a result. In grades K-3, children are still developing the skills to regulate their own behavior, emotions, and attention, and therefore struggle with distance learning. Schools should prioritize reopening for grades K-5 and for students with special needs who would be best served by in-person instruction.

“This pandemic has laid bare the deep, enduring inequities that afflict our country and our schools,” said Enriqueta Bond, chair of the committee that authored the report. “Many of the communities hardest hit by the virus are also home to schools with the least resources and the greatest challenges. Education leaders need to be careful when making the decision to reopen to not exacerbate these inequities.”

COVID-19 Precautions for Reopened Schools

The report also recommends schools and districts take the following precautions to protect staff and students:

  • Provide surgical masks for all teachers and staff. All students and staff should wear face masks. Younger children may have difficulty using face masks, but schools should encourage compliance.
  • Provide hand washing stations or hand sanitizer for all people who enter school buildings, minimize contact with shared surfaces, and increase regular surface cleaning.
  • Limit large gatherings of students, such as during assemblies, in the cafeteria, and overcrowding at school entrances, possibly by staggering arrival times.
  • Reorganize classrooms to enable physical distancing, such as by limiting class sizes or moving instruction to larger spaces. The report says cohorting, when a group of 10 students or less stay with the same staff as much as possible, is a promising strategy for physical distancing.
  • Prioritize cleaning, ventilation, and air filtration, while recognizing that these alone will not sufficiently lower the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
  • Create a culture of health and safety in every school, and enforce virus mitigation guidelines using positive approaches rather than by disciplining students.

The report says the cost of implementing these COVID-19 precautions will be very high, totaling approximately $1.8 million for a school district with eight school buildings and around 3,200 students. These costs are coming at a financially uncertain moment for many school districts, and could lead to funding shortfalls. While the size of the funding shortfall will depend on how well-resourced a school district is, many districts will be unable to afford implementing the entire suite of mitigation measures, potentially leaving students and staff in those districts at greater risk of infection.

Staffing Challenges

Staffing is likely to be a major challenge if and when schools reopen. A significant portion of school staff are in COVID-19 high-risk age groups, or are hesitant to return to work because of the health risks. The report says some COVID-19 mitigation strategies, such as maintaining smaller class sizes, will require additional teaching staff. 

Deciding When to Reopen

When making the decision to reopen, education leaders should develop decision-making coalitions to allow for input from representatives of school staff, families, local health officials, and other community interests. These coalitions should decide educational priorities for reopening schools; be explicit about financial, staffing, and facility constraints; and establish an ongoing plan for communicating about school decisions and resources. In developing reopening plans, districts should also take existing educational disparities into account, such as school facilities, staffing, and overcrowding, as well as disparities among students and families. Schools should partner closely with public health officials to assess school facilities for minimum health standards and consult on school plans for COVID-19 mitigation.

Continued School Monitoring During COVID-19

The decision to reopen schools should be iterative, and schools should be prepared for future school closures based on the progress of the pandemic. The report recommends public health officials develop a protocol for monitoring COVID-19 data to make decisions about changes to school virus mitigation strategies, and make judgments about future school closures in partnership with school districts. States should ensure that districts have access to ongoing support from public health officials.

Unanswered Questions and Continued Research

The report recommends research be conducted immediately to investigate the link between children and the transmission of COVID-19, the role of reopening schools in community spread, airborne transmission of the virus, and the effectiveness of various virus mitigation strategies. The evidence needed to make informed decisions about school reopening and safe operation is lacking in many areas, and further research is required.

The study — undertaken by the Committee on Guidance for K-12 Schools on COVID-19 — was sponsored by the Spencer Foundation and the Brady Education Foundation and completed in collaboration with the National Academies Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln.

Race and Language Teaching

I moved to Birmingham, Alabama, in 1988 from Los Angeles, California. Even Birmingham’s undeniable legacy of racial injustice and violence could not quell my youthful anticipation of beginning my first academic appointment at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Prior, I had taught as a graduate student at the University of Iowa and UCLA. Before that, I cut my teeth as a Spanish teacher in the public schools in Iowa. None of these experiences prepared me completely for teaching in the Deep South.

I am a White female. I am a language educator and humanities professor by training. I was a child during the civil rights movement led by the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. From that time, I understood that we all have to work on not being racist every day. It is a process. The educational community has a responsibility to work on this process constantly with our students collectively and individually.

I can still recall my initial semesters of teaching at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the early 1990s. On the first day of classes, my undergraduate students in introductory Spanish classes would often sort themselves by race into a black and white seating arrangement. It was eye-opening to see such unapologetic self-segregation. At those moments, I remember also feeling empowered because I was a Spanish teacher. In the language classroom, I knew that I would have all of my students working together in Spanish in small groups regardless of race. Three times a week, I reshuffled my students again and again to make sure that they got to know each other well.

In introductory Spanish, one of the universal experiences is the attempt to communicate with limited vocabulary. A typical in-class exercise for beginners is to learn how to talk about family and family members with reduced Spanish. These were opportunities to create common ground among classmates. While students shared that their abuelas were old and short, these interactions chipped away at the racial divide. These simple utterances linked students through their common human experiences. None of my pedagogy was revolutionary. However, it was a step. In large part, my students had been educated in Alabama high schools that did not receive high marks for desegregation due to long-standing racist practices. My goal was to try to make people comfortable with each other. Typically, my classes were made up of roughly 25% Black and 75% White students in the 1990s.

From time to time, I was fortunate to have the same students enroll in my classes over several years and follow me from beginning to more advanced Spanish classes. It was gratifying to see familiar students discontinue the practice of sitting by race because they had developed friendships across color lines. Admittedly, these were baby steps toward the confrontation of an enormous problem.

During my teaching career, I also had a variety of difficult dialogues in class and teachable moments during my office hours. I spoke openly about race and identity in my classes and encouraged my students to do the same. I recollect a White student who visited me during office hours. She came in and closed the door. I will call her Amy. She was engaged to be married. Later, she shared that her fiancé lived in a mobile home near Birmingham. She said to me, “I just don’t get it.” At that moment, I was expecting to rehash for her some nuance of Spanish grammar, but Amy went on to clarify. She genuinely wanted me to explain to her the issue with the Confederate flag that flew regularly above her fiancé’s home. She seemed baffled about why some of her classmates taunted her because of it. That was not the last time I had to explain that the Confederate flag made (and still makes) lots of people uncomfortable. That day in my office, Amy also received a bonus history lesson.

Over the years, my Black students taught me many things. One was about the power of imagery and identity. In the late 1990s, it became apparent that my Black students could not see themselves in mainstream Spanish teaching materials. The images found in instructional materials were overwhelmingly of White Spanish speakers worldwide. The visuals omitted Afro-Hispanic history and Afro-Latinx presence—not to mention the absence of other marginalized groups like the large Spanish-speaking Indigenous populations. After all, it may be easier for Black students to see themselves speaking Spanish if they see, hear, and learn about Afro-Cubans, the Spanish speakers of Equatorial Guinea, and multicultural Puerto Ricans, among others. My Black students helped me to dig deeper to develop and publish more inclusive and thought-provoking instructional materials to use with all of my students. While these anecdotes may sound dated, why are similar experiences that highlight racial inequities and bigotry still repeating themselves 30 years later?

Language teachers are well-positioned to contribute to the fight against racism in little and big ways. Language teachers build trust and influence learners. Language teachers know how to cross cultures and generally are comfortable in uncomfortable situations. The language classroom offers a space to share culture, customs, and friendship. In the wake of George Floyd’s death and the protests, language teachers and learners must make a positive contribution to change.

At present, I am the executive director of a large teaching association. Organizations such as the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) stand ready to work with individual teachers to share diverse materials that combat racism. We promote and practice inclusion. We commit ourselves to celebrating Afro-Latinidad at our conferences, in AATSP publications, and in the classroom. We are committed to advocating for justice for Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, Muslim, LGBTQ, and other marginalized people. However, so much more needs to be done. I am excited about the next phase of the development of a more direct and systematic language pedagogy dealing with inequality, race, and ethnicity. Language teachers are purveyors of empathy and understanding. Language teachers do not have all of the answers, but our engagement and leadership in the process will be essential as we move past the stormy summer of 2020.

Sheri Spaine Long ([email protected]) is executive director of the American Association of Spanish and Portuguese Teachers.

The Children’s Equity Project Releases Equity Roadmap for Early Education

The Children’s Equity Project and the Bipartisan Policy Center have come together to create an actionable policy roadmap for states and the federal government—as well as for candidates at all levels of government vying for office—to take meaningful steps to remedy these inequities in early learning and education systems. The report, “Start with Equity: From the Early Years to to Early Grades Data, Research, and an Actionable Child Equity Policy Agenda” aims to close opportunity gaps in learning systems.

The report identified three key policy areas that strongly influence children’s experiences in the classroom and disproportionately disadvantage children of color and children with disabilities. They include:

• Harsh discipline and its disproportionate application

• The segregation of children with disabilities in learning settings

• The inequitable access to bilingual learning opportunities for dual language and English learners

The report also discussed the following findings in regards to DLL and EL Students in Particular:

  • Dual language learners (DLL) and English learners (EL) are a large, diverse, and growing population.It is estimated that about a third of children in the country under eight are DLLs1, though gaps in data prevent a more precise estimate.
  • As a subgroup, DLL and EL children have a host of linguistic, cultural, and social strengths. Their bilingualism is associated with cognitive advantages, including strong executive functioning skills, attention, perspective taking, and self-regulation.
  • Dual language immersion models are associated with improved developmental, linguistic, and academic outcomes for all students. Such models present academic content in two languages in settings in which, ideally, the enrollment is roughly balanced between native speakers of each of the languages used. Research shows that having access to learning experiences in a child’s home language alongside English strengthens the language foundation upon which literacy grows, provides meaningful access to the curriculum, and can foster better teacher-child relationships.
  • Despite the advantages of bilingualism and the superiority of high-quality bilingual learning models, our learning systems are overwhelmingly depriving DLLs and ELs of such opportunities.
  • There is a lack of bilingual learning programs nationwide. In some places where bilingual learning programs do exist, DLLs and ELs are underrepresented; in other places, they are explicitly locked out as a matter of policy.
  • English immersion or “English-only” programs are commonplace for DLLs and ELs, but they are not effective. In K-12 settings, these models sometimes result in the segregation of students learning English. Research shows DLLs who are first exposed to English in kindergarten and remain in English-dominant instructional environments tend to fall behind their early-proficient and monolingual English-speaking peers on academic skills (as measured in English).
  • This has contributed to a gap between DLLs’ and ELs’ potential and their outcomes. Beyond a lack of access to appropriate learning approaches, this gap is likely tied to a societal bias in the United States in favor of English monolingualism. Assessments are primarily conducted in English, and while bilingualism is valued for some—often higher income, native English speakers—it is seen as a deficit for DLLs and ELs.
  • These factors not only compound to disadvantage children, they also give a misguided perception of the capabilities of DLLs and ELs.
  • For DLLs, bilingual learning is not an optional enrichment, as it is for children who speak English as a first language. It can make or break their access to a quality education altogether. It is the difference between enrichment and equity.
  • Assessment problems cannot be overlooked. In addition to improving access to high-quality bilingual learning models, we need better assessments for DLLs and ELs so we can effectively measure both student progress and program effectiveness. Too often, assessments are conducted in English, which end up assessing a child’s English skills rather than subject matter content. Although the field is lacking assessment tools in a diverse array of languages spoken by children in this country, there are tools in Spanish—by far the most commonly spoken language by DLLs and ELs in this country—that are not being used enough. Other obstacles to success are also significant. One problem that limits access to strong bilingual programs is the shortage of bilingual teachers nationally with the appropriate credentials.
  • In addition, research finds that teacher bias and differential expectations for DLLs and ELs also impacts the success of young learners. Nationally representative data show that teachers have lower academic expectations for children classified as ELs; this is not the case in bilingual schools.
  • Similarly, in countries that place value on speaking multiple languages, the academic differences between monolingual and bilingual students are small or nonexistent.

View the full report here.

Curriculum Associates Offering i-Ready Updates and New Resources

Curriculum Associates recently announced a collection of new resources and back-to-school product features designed to support educators and students during the 2020–2021 school year. These new offerings include a recently launched online toolkit for addressing the challenges of the coming school year, with a whitepaper and multiple videos on how i-Ready can be leveraged to help address these challenges. The company is also releasing a host of new i-Ready product features to address and support unfinished learning from last year.

“As a company committed to service, our team is focused on doing everything we can to help our educator partners and their students navigate the uncertainty of the new school year,” said Rob Waldron, CEO of Curriculum Associates. “We’ve designed these latest offerings to support successful teaching and address the unique learning needs of each student, whether at school or at home.”

The online toolkit includes the new One Hundred Leaders’ View on the Back to School Challenge whitepaper, which distills insights from district leaders across the country into four essential needs that must be met for success in the year ahead. This resource, developed from months of deep engagement with leaders, outlines these critical needs and the ways in which Curriculum Associates and i-Ready are supporting teachers and leaders in setting students on a path to success this fall.

The toolkit additionally features videos and support materials detailing how i-Ready addresses these unique needs for the school year ahead. These critical supports include providing multi-grade understanding of student needs, establishing goals that are both attainable and ambitious, materials designed to help balance prerequisite and grade-level learning, and instruction created with both quality and ease of use in mind.

Curriculum Associates is launching numerous i-Ready updates prior to the start of the school year in an effort to empower educators, offer flexibility, and support unfinished learning. These enhancements, many of which were accelerated based on feedback from educators about their most pressing needs, aim to provide deeper insights for teachers and offer scenario plans and guidance to support learning and assessment, whether it takes place at home or at school. These updates also aim to provide significant new reporting and resources that help teachers uncover and address unfinished learning by strategically preparing students for success in grade-level instruction.

Reading resources for Grades 3–8 will also be available in order to help teachers scaffold students’ comprehension and empower all learners to participate in grade-level Reading instruction. New historical i-Ready reporting will also be available in order to help districts compare students’ instructional performance from last year. Additional new reporting features and functionality will also be added, including the ability to identify student needs with more precision with five overall placement levels on Diagnostic Results. i-Ready will also feature a new online learning platform that extends professional development, new K–8 lessons, Learning Games for middle schoolers, more culturally responsive content, added integrated support for English Learners, and ongoing accessibility improvements.

Teaching Aid Company Unveils Library of Online Spanish Readers

A group of authors is providing near-free Spanish readers to embattled teachers who are required to teach remotely. The library of online readers from recognized authors is accessible by computer or smartphone.

Low word count readers, also known as comprehensible input readers began taking off as a staple in Spanish secondary school instruction after 2017. Generally pricey, a class set of 30 can easily cost over $200. In spite of high cost, usage of Spanish readers is growing each year according to experts.

The Covid-19 crisis, requiring teachers to teach students online, created a sudden surge in demand for digital Spanish readers. The response by publishers of Spanish readers has been mixed. There have been cases of price gouging during the crisis. Some publishers are offering e-course class sets as high as $400.

A group of 15 to 20 Spanish Reader authors have volunteered to have their readers included on a special “Flangoo” website, giving teachers access to 20 readers in both text and audio for all of their students. The site, according to Steve Giroux, “Is sort of like Netflix® for readers. The cost of maintaining flangoo.com is minimal, so access to the entire library of readers is under a dollar a student.”

He notes, “The cost of supplying online readers is practically nothing. There is no need to charge even as much as a dollar a student.”

Says Skip McWilliams of Teacher’s Discovery who administers the program, “This is not the time for profiteering, this is the time to give back.”

“We are enthusiastic about the support from authors.” He adds, “With 20 already, and more joining the program each month, we project Spanish teachers having over 40 readers at teacher’s fingertips.”

“I remember the afternoon when Steve Giroux first proposed the idea,” says Skip McWilliams. “He saw innovative pioneers working tirelessly to show the educational community the practical superiority of well crafted readers. But Steve noted that budgetary constraints at the school level have kept readers out of the hands of the vast majority of students.”

“Why not make them available digitally on the student’s phones, tablets and computers? That shouldn’t cost much at all. For less than the price of 30 copies of a single print reader, the teachers would be able to have twenty readers for all 150 kids.” Check out www.Flangoo.com. Subscriptions are half off for teachers that have to work remotely during this pandemic. If you are still not sure, sign up for a free trial and see for yourself.

Latinos Make Up Majority of Admitted Freshmen to the University of California for the First Time Ever

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According to preliminary data released Thursday by the University of California, Latino students will make up the majority of the University of California’s freshman class for this upcoming school year. For the first time ever at the schools, they are now the largest ethnic or racial group of incoming freshmen, making up 36% of the nearly 80,000 admitted students. 

Offers to California freshmen from underrepresented groups increased by 4,678 for a total of 33,225, an increase of 16 percent from last year. In a first in UC history, Chicanx/Latinx students now comprise the largest ethnic group of admitted freshmen, making up 36 percent of admitted freshmen, up from 34 percent last year. Asian American students remained at 35 percent and white students decreased by a percentage point to 21 percent of admitted freshmen. The proportion of African American students inched higher from 4.8 percent to 5 percent and American Indian students remained at 0.5 percent.

The University also saw an increase in admission of low-income and first-generation-to-college students this year. The proportion of California freshmen who would be the first in their families to earn a four-year college degree increased to 45 percent (35,058), up from 44 percent (30,856) in 2019, while the proportion of low-income students grew to 44 percent (30,865), up from 40 percent (26,913).

“This has been an incredibly challenging time as many students have been making their college decision in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said UC President Janet Napolitano. “UC continues to see increased admissions of underrepresented students as we seek to educate a diverse student body of future leaders. The incoming class will be one of our most talented and diverse yet, and UC is proud to invite them to join us.”

While the debate for how to reopen Universities in the wake of rising COVID-19 numbers is not yet solved, many schools in the University of California system are opening up with many of their classes offered online, and some classes with in-person options. Some schools, like the University of California Davis plan to offer in-person instruction for the “small number of courses that cannot be delivered remotely,” including classes that emphasize hands-on learning.

Early Learning Programs Stretched by Pandemic

Early Edge California and the American Institutes for Research (AIR) released their research brief, California’s Early Learning and Care Providers: Essential Workers Who Need Support, which shares results from seven focus groups* conducted with Early Learning providers across the state about their needs and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research shows that the crisis has taken a significant toll on Early Learning providers, including those serving the state’s large and growing population of dual language learners (DLLs); and that Early Learning programs need more resources to continue serving families.

“The results from this research evidence the need to provide more resources to Early Learning teachers and the children they serve during these unprecedented times,” said Patricia Lozano, Executive Director of Early Edge California. “It’s clear that we need to provide more guidance, resources, technology, and support to them to get through this crisis. This pandemic has revealed deep disparities that need to be addressed to create an equitable system that supports learning for all children.”

The focus group findings showed that providers are committed, resilient, and doing their best, despite facing considerable challenges during this time. Many providers are finding creative and flexible ways to support children’s learning. Even staff who are no longer getting paid due to program closures or who are being furloughed reported that they check in regularly with families and children and help as they can. And communication with families goes beyond providing learning resources or ideas for the children—it also includes helping families find food, access physical and mental health supports in the community, and navigate technology.

Providers are also making extra efforts to connect with DLL families, but supporting the learning of DLL children was noted as a particular challenge. “Engaging children under 5 in distance learning experiences is no small task,” explained Dr. Rebecca Bergey, Senior Researcher at AIR, “but ensuring effective learning opportunities for DLLs over Zoom is a real challenge. Providers need more guidance on distance learning for all.”

Limited, delayed, and changing guidance has left providers to figure out things on their own.

“We’re in the dark about what we’re supposed to be doing,” said one focus group participant.

Providers also indicated that the COVID-19 crisis has taken a significant financial toll on their programs and that many are struggling to get the basic supplies they need for their young students.

Based on the feedback from these focus groups, Early Edge and AIR recommend the following actions:

  1. Continue to fund state-contracted programs.
  2. Support home-based care through local and statewide networks.
  3. Support private programs with guidance and access to resources.
  4. Provide guidance for all programs on how to operate in the new context.
  5. Ensure all programs and families have access to technology and resources to meet basic needs.
  6. Share distance learning resources with all programs.
  7. Help programs better support DLLs in distance learning.
  8. Capitalize on connections with families to strengthen engagement.
  9. Share resources with DLL families to promote home language development.
  10. Support Early Learning providers as people.

To learn more about these recommendations and other findings from the focus groups, see the report at the following link: https://bit.ly/3fSeqNY

*To further understand the challenges faced by early educators and caregivers, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and Early Edge California conducted seven focus groups in May 2020 with 32 Early Learning providers (including administrators, teachers, and caregivers) who work in a variety of settings (school-based; center-based; Head Start; State Preschool; family childcare centers; and family, friend, and neighbor care) across the state. Most providers from center- and school-based programs, whether publicly funded or private-pay, told us they were closed for the direct provision of on-site care while the state was under stay-at-home orders.

Early Edge California is a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to improving access to high-quality Early Learning experiences for all California children so they can have a strong foundation for future success.

About AIR

Established in 1946, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance, both domestically and internationally, in the areas of education, health and the workforce. For more information, visit www.air.org.

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